City begins layoff plans after judge rules in parking case

Opponents of proposal must collect 8,500 valid signatures by April 5 to put issue on November ballot

Mar. 29, 2013

The fire recruits in this photo graduate today as the city's 111th recruit class, the first class to graduate in three years. But they may be among the first people laid off if a city parking deal doesn't proceed. / The Enquirer/Glenn Hartong

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Councilman and NAACP President Christopher Smitherman: “How does he (Dohoney) do anything without giving back his $35,000 bonus? How does he release a Plan B budget without touching his own office budget, without touching the mayor’s office budget, without touching city council members’ budgets? Why aren’t we looking at the highly compensated staff?” Mayoral candidate John Cranley: “The city should prioritize basic services like police and fire rather than wasting money on pet projects like the streetcar. If necessary, on Dec. 1 I will convert my swearing-in ceremony to a welcome back party and hire back laid off city workers.”

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The 111th Cincinnati Fire Department recruit class graduates Friday, even though a court ruling Thursday threatens the recruits’ jobs by blocking the city’s plan to lease its parking system.

It is the first class to graduate since 2009, and some of its members have been waiting at least that long

to join the Cincinnati Fire Department.

Now, the wait could continue.

Besides blocking the parking plan and a $92 million payment it would provide to the city, the court struck down the city’s ability to quickly

pass ordinances by declaring an emergency, saying it must allow 30 days for residents to gather petition signatures to force a vote of the public.

Deprived of assurance it will get the parking money in time to approve a balanced budget for next year, the city put in motion plans to lay off some 270 police officers and firefighters.

Opponents must collect than 8,500 valid signatures by April 5 to get the parking plan on the fall ballot. If they fail, the ordinance takes effect.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Winkler ruled Thursday the city can’t invoke the emergency clause in the lease agreement that allowed the city to implement the plan immediately.

City Council on March 6 approved the deal, which would allow the city to lease all the parking meters (for 30 years) and city-owned garages and lots (for 50 years) to the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority.

The port would contract with a team of private businesses to run

it.

Opponents of the plan sued immediately, saying the city improperly used the emergency clause in opposition to what they called majority public opinion and asked a judge to allow the plan to be voted on by the public.

Winkler agreed Thursday, but his ruling went further. He found that no city ordinance can be passed using an emergency order.

“What if there is a tornado?” asked City Solicitor John Curp, noting that the city now has no way to adopt laws that deal with disasters.

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Mallory said City Council regularly uses its emergency powers.

“At any one council meeting, we may vote on 10, 15 emergency clauses,” the mayor said.

The loss of the emergency powers, which the city will appeal and hopes to have reversed in “two to three weeks,” Curp said, also is ominous for the city’s budget in other ways:

• Without the $92 million payment, the city needs $25 million to plug part of the hole in the its budget that must be in place June 1. It also means less or no money for development projects like the proposed I-71 ramp to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive that is hoped will bring thousands of jobs.

• Because the city can’t use an emergency order, it must have an approved budget in place by June 1 – 30 days sooner than council planned. The city has a $35 million budget gap for the budget year that starts July 1 and planned to close much of that gap with money from the parking lease.

“This blows up the charter,” Curp said of the document that determines how Cincinnati is governed.

• City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. acknowledged Thursday he is beginning “Plan B” – preparing for layoffs of 344 employees because the unions that represent 90 percent of city workers have contracts that require advance notice of layoffs.

“I can’t wait until May 1 to get started,” Dohoney said.

Pete Witte, one of those who sued and who was mentioned by name in Winkler’s Thursday decision, was irked that the mayor threatened public safety cuts.

“That’s an outrageous statement,” Witte said. “We need to elect a mayor and council to get this job done without doing this hokey deal that the parking deal was. ... He’s using every scare tactic possible.”

Dohoney, though, insisted it’s anything but.

“I’m not elected. I don’t bluff,” he said.

In addition to the immediate economic impact on the city, Winkler’s ruling, if it stands, would have long-term effects, the city manager noted.

At what other time will the city have $20 million in cash to help fund the I-71 ramp to MLK? Developers will be less interested in doing business in the city because they want to act immediately on projects and the city can’t do that without emergency powers.

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“Time is money in the development world,” Dohoney said.

Then voters will elect representatives who will make the city competitive while also giving residents a voice in how the city is run, Witte responded.

“If this council does cut police and firefighters, we will absolutely not only have a referendum on this, but on those members of council (who) have thrown neighborhoods under the bus,” Witte said.

Opponents of the parking plan are pushing to collect enough signatures to force a vote.

They won’t say how many they’ve collected.

“We really need a lot of signatures, I can tell you that,” said Chris Finney, one of the lawyers who filed the suit against the city.

If the petition drive falls short, Dohoney said the city can reverse the layoffs.

If enough signatures are collected, the layoffs will happen, Dohoney said, as well as other cuts: $1.7 million from human services agencies; closure of three community centers and six pools; and cuts to arts organizations, park maintenance and neighborhood support funds.

As for the fire recruits, Jennifer Spieser, spokeswoman for Cincinnati Fire Chief Richard Braun, said the department is waiting for a decision from the city manager.

“Right now we want to focus on celebrating their graduation,” Spieser said.

“They start their assignments on Sunday and received notice (Thursday) on where they are going to work,”she said. ■